


The More Things Change

by lonely_is_so_lonely_alone



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4034449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonely_is_so_lonely_alone/pseuds/lonely_is_so_lonely_alone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don’t worry about the little things in life. Always look at the big picture, then everything will be okay–that’s what they tell you isn’t it?<br/>But sometimes, just sometimes, that’s not true. The little things do matter if you think about it-you change one small thing and everything could be different. One heartbeat is all you need to change everything. What would your life be like?</p><p>AU - What would've happened to everyone if Addison had never slept with Mark when they were in New York.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to write this fic after watching If/Then again and noticing how, even though it’s all based off the fact that Ellis never get’s Alzheimer’s, everything that changes - for example Alex’s pepy-ness or no one liking Cristina – doesn’t actually stem from this decision; they are just random. So this fic is me trying to attempt to see what all the repercussions would be if you changed something small in the Grey’s universe. So for pairing mentioned above, some are them are repercussions of the change while some I intend to be endgame.  
> IMPORTANT: This fic is an AU based from the point that Addison slept with Mark and thus causing Derek to move to Seattle. In this Addison and Mark didn’t sleep together so Derek never moved – this fic is seeing how this would’ve effected the people at Seattle Grace/Mercy West/Grey Sloan and is set 2015 so the changes have had time to manifest/occur. If you want to know why I’ve made certain decisions about how/why this changes things for the characters just comment with your question and I’ll try my best to explain.

_….._

_Don’t worry about the little things in life. If you aim big, always look at the big picture, then everything will be okay – that’s what they tell you isn’t it?_

_But sometimes, just sometimes, that’s not true. The little things do matter if you think about it – you change one small thing and everything could be different. One moment, one heartbeat is all you need to change everything. What would your life be like?_

 

…..

The grass is wet with rain but thankfully the clouds have closed and no more falls. Callie Torres stares down at the grave and then at the man stood beside her. Alex gives her a small smile, dropping his gaze to headstone a few metres away. Callie reaches down and shifts the position of the flowers on the ground – trying to make sure they’re in the right place. Her eyes, for a second, flick to the name engraved in the stone but she’s already memorised every dip and curve of the lettering on it, all the words on George O’Malley’s grave.

Six graves down, Alex Karev stuffs his hands into his pockets. Even though the rain has stopped the air is still bitingly cold and Alex is trying to stay warm. He half turns to look at Callie but most of his attention is still on the grave. The fresh red of the flowers contrast like blood against the grey of the grave in the afternoon gloom and he closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.  “Karev?” Callie whispers in the cold. “You ready yet?”

“Give me a second yeah?” he replies a heartbeat later, his eyes flicking open. Alex looks down at the grave one last time; the pain washing over him as forcefully as a flood - like it always does when he lets it get to him. He guesses that it’s the same for Callie, the hurt – the guilty that shouldn’t be there but is – because they’ve both lost the people they love. He glances over at her and spares a thought for George, it’s been six years for both of them but Callie’s had a rougher time of it than he has. Alex is certain of that.

Callie appears behind him and places a hand on his shoulder – they’ve got used to this, yearly trips to the graveyard to mourn those who they have lost, and through it have become close, closer than they would’ve she’s sure. It nearly makes her laugh, the fact it took something so awful to make them friends and Callie doesn’t laugh for much these days. Alex stands and looks at her, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, and they start to walk towards the car park. As they reach the boundary he turns, just for a fraction of a second, to look at his wife’s grave, at Izzie Stevens’ final resting place and burns at the unfairness of it all.

Callie spots the car from the path and starts towards it, Alex following just behind. “Are you ready to go back?” Lexie Grey asks, opening the car door and peering out. Callie appreciates the fact the younger doctor offered to drive them here today, neither her or Alex are in a particularly good state to drive. Callie knows, though, that it still hurt for Lexie like it hurt for her when George died. The three take their seats in the car, Callie in the front passage and Alex in the back, as Lexie puts the key into the ignition.

….

Addison Montgomery likes coffee. She likes it a lot. She also hasn’t had any since the previous day and is starting to get twitchy. Derek always laughs when she gets twitchy but she doesn’t see the funny side herself. “We’ve only got five minutes till check in Addie,” Amelia Shepherd states, staring down at her watch. Addison looks around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband and notices him, ambling along near the elevator and points him out to Amy. As Derek comes closer Mark Sloan rounds the corner, his son next to him. Both she and Amy watch as he challenges Noah to a race and they make their way over in double quick time. It makes her happy to see Mark and Noah how they are – in vindicates her decision to persuade Slone to let Mark adopt him – he’s a good father and it makes her think about what kind of father Derek would be, he’s like an uncle to Noah already and it makes Addison wonder, just for a moment.

Derek reaches them and hands her a coffee which she drinks down quickly as Mark gives Amy one and the group starts making their way to the check out desks. Derek searches his pockets and retrieves the tickets, dolling them out and turning to face the woman sitting at the counter. The woman accepts them and starts feeding them through a machine while Mark breaks a candy bar and starts offering each of them a square. Derek wonders if they really had to come on this trip but remembers Erica Hahn’s insistence that, as some of the best in their respective fields, they just _had_ to attend the Annual VMedtech conference being held in Seattle – and when the head of surgery tells you you have to go somewhere you usually do. 

He moves out the way when Addison starts loading the bags onto the conveyer belt and he finds himself next to Amy. “Remind me why we brought Noah again, I though you said Mom was looking after him?” Derek nearly misses his sister’s words because the woman at the desk is spouting information about where the bathrooms are in the departure lounge. When he finally works out what she has asked Noah is gleefully placing his rucksack next to Mark’s suitcase. He smiles at this before speaking.

“Apparently,” he says, “kids are welcome. The information in the booklet Hahn gave me said that everyone’s going to bringing their kids,” He nearly laughs at the absurdity of it all, medical conferences don’t usually encourage you to bring your offspring but for some reason Derek thinks that this one’s going to be different from anyone he’s ever been to before. Mark turns, a smile lighting up his face.

“You guys ready for the flight then?”

…..

Meredith dislikes boxes as she stares at her hall. They’re all over the place, haphazardly stacked on top of each other and she sighs as the doorbell rings. She moves over to the door and opens it, unsurprised to see Owen.

“I just…" he starts, gesturing at the boxes on the floor. “wanted to get my stuff,” Meredith nods and stands to one side, allowing him in. She can remember the day they met, he’d been in his army uniform and they’d gone from there. Not one of the world’s most romantic meeting but she had been happy. They had been happy, hadn’t they, for the most part – but she guesses they just hadn’t loved each other quite enough, no, just not enough.

Owen takes another step into the hall and she lets the door fall closed before turning to face him. “Is Emily at your mom’s?” she asks, putting her hands in her pockets and leaning on the banister – Owen nods and laughs a little.

“You know my mom loves babysitting,” he says a second later while picking up one of the boxes on the floor. Emily, Meredith thinks, is one of the reasons they stayed together as long as they did – their daughter, born just over two years ago. She has his eyes and her smile. Meredith hadn’t wanted children, not really - not to start with – but when she had found out she was pregnant Owen had convinced her that her fears she’d be like her own mother were unfounded and he had been right, Emily meant the world to her and she knew know that she was nothing like her mother.

It had all be so wonderful when Emily had been born, but since then her relationship with Owen had started to fall apart – not with big arguments or with recriminations that couldn’t be taken back, no, just slowly piece by piece until nearly a week ago while Emily was playing on the floor they had decided that enough was enough and they should go their separate ways – and that was that, Owen had moved out to stay with his mom until he found somewhere else.

Owen goes to take the box out when she speaks. “You don’t have to do this know if you don’t want to?”

“Meredith,” he says gently, “I….”

“I was just thinking that Alex could help you or something, if you wanted,” she interrupts quickly, gesturing around. “It’s just….. he’s at the graveyard at the moment…” she says, trailing off. Owen nods understandingly and puts the box down, glancing up at her.

“I’ll come back later, yeah.” he says, starting to the door. “I’ll bring Emily,” he continues as he opens the door. Meredith nods, happy that they can be like this, still be so friendly – but she guesses that down to the fact that they were friends before they got together – once a friend always a friend or something.

“Yeah,” she says, watching him walk to his car. “See you tonight,”

….

Jackson Avery sits on his bed, in one hand he hold a phone while with the other he valiantly tries to do up his tie. “So what times the flight?” he says in to the phone. He sighs and continues to struggle with his tie. Two thousand miles away April Kepner sits in JFK airport, a phone also held to her ear. The chair she has chosen is uncomfortable and she been at the airport for the best part of three hours. “Soon,” she says optimistically and then, trying to change the subject. “you ready for tonight?”  Tonight, April knows, is the night Jackson Avery asks his girlfriend to marry him – and she pretends that it doesn’t hurt quite as much as it does.

“Yeah,” he says adjusting his tie again.

“I’m happy for you Jackson,” April says and they both pretend they don’t hear the wobble in her voice as she speaks.

“Well Lexie hasn’t said yes yet,” he replies, trying to joke, a moment later.

“She will, Jackson,” she says, “of course she will.” Her voice has an edge of bitterness that she has tried hard to disguise but it’s bled through, just a little. Before Jackson can reply however the airport tannoy sounds.

“Will all passengers for Flight A170515 to Seattle please go to Gate 4 as boarding is about to begin.” April stands, please that something is actually happening.

“That’s me,” she says to Jackson. “I’ve got to go,” April starts off towards the gate, wheeling her suitcase behind her.

“See you tomorrow then April,”

“Yeah, good luck with Lexie yeah,”

“Yeah,” April ends the call and stares forward, wondering why she always gets an empty feeling after she speaks to Jackson. In her rush to get to the departure gate she nearly walks flat into a red headed woman holding a cup of coffee.

….

Cristina watches the water run over her hands, washing them clean of any traces of the operation she has just completed. She turns the tap off and turns, pulling the paper towels from the dispenser and drying her hands. She waits as her husband does the same and then opens the door, letting them both out.

“I’ve got to do some paper work,” Preston Burke starts, “but then do you want to get some coffee? We could go over the transmyocardial laser revascularization we’re doing tomorrow?” Cristina looks over to him before replies.

“I told Mer that I’d go look in on one of her patients, maybe tomorrow?” As she stops speaking they reach a door, Burke reaches over and presses the release button, holding it open for his wife to pass through.

“Not going to happen Cristina,” he starts, “the Vmedtech conference starts tomorrow, you know I can’t miss that.” He shakes his head as they come to a stop, he looks around and then settles his focus onto Cristina. “I don’t think I’ll make it home tonight, don’t wait up.” Cristina nods, leaning up and kissing Burke on the cheek.

“Don’t let them keep you too long,” she says, starting to walk off. “I know you’re the chief,” she adds turning round to face him. “but you do need to come home at some point”

….

“So you should be fine to go home tomorrow Tommy,” Arizona Robbins says to the 7 year old boy lying in the bed. He nods as she places his chart back into its holder, her thoughts on getting out of the hospital – her shift should’ve been over two hours ago but little Tommy Redfern’s appendix wasn’t to know that.

As she slips out of the room she becomes aware that someone is calling her name and upon turning sees Jo Wilson walking up the corridor towards her. “What’s wrong Wilson?” she asks exasperatedly.

“It’s the Chief,” Jo starts “He asked me to remind you that you’re doing a seminar at the conference tomorrow.”  Arizona nods, starting forward towards the elevator and thanking Jo as she goes. She sighs as she pushes the button and puts her hands into her pockets, once again dreaming of the wine she has at home.

She’s pulled out of her reverie by Miranda Bailey, who stands next to her, also waiting for the elevator. “Chief got you doing a seminar too?” Arizona looks down at the smaller doctor and nods. “It’s not that I don’t want too – it’s just that we’ve never done something so big before,” Bailey continues.

“Apparently having the VMed here is quite a coup,” Arizona adds as the elevator dings and they both climb in. They stand in silence for a second before Arizona speaks again. “How’s Richard?”

“Oh, you know, retirements not quite his thing.” Bailey starts, thinking to the last time she saw the former chief – nearly a week ago when she and Ben had had him over for thanksgiving. Richard had seemed happy enough but they had both noticed how much he missed the thrill of operating – to be honest he had missed it since he’d given the chief of surgery seat to Burke nearly 8 years previously – even with the administrative job he had taken up at the hospital a few years back he still seemed just that little bit empty, like there was something missing now he no longer had his surgery.

 “I heard Burke’s asked him to speak at the conference, seeing as he still has a board seat and everything.” Bailey nods at the blonde’s words then asks.

“Are you coming to Meredith’s birthday party tomorrow?”  Bailey knows the blonde peeds doctor has been invited but asks anyway. The party’s not going to be that big – Bailey knows- instead it’ll be about ten people all cooing over little Emily and chatting about everything under the sun.  

“Yeah,” Arizona starts. “Sad about her and Hunt isn’t it?”As the lift comes to its next floor and the doors rolls open Bailey shrugs and looks at Arizona.

“Everything ends at some point,” she says, “but I know what you mean, it’s like everything’s a little different – like it’s all changing.” Bailey continues, exiting the lift and disappearing down a corridor. Arizona looks around for someone else to talk to but upon seeing no one starts off it the direction of the attending lounge, her sneakers rolling all the way.

She guesses that Bailey was right, everything is changing. 

….

_So, you see, you change one thing – one thing that you might not have even thought effected you to start with and every could be different – your life, your kids, the future you planned with the person you love – might not be yours at all._

_All because you changed one of the little things._

     


	2. Chapter 2

….

Mark doesn’t like planes much, he always get this feeling that it’s not quite safe – that something might go wrong the whole time. He’s sitting in the middle seat, Noah near the window and Amelia the other side – Derek sits behind him and Addison is behind Noah, much to the little boy’s enjoyment.

Mark leans down and retrieves a travel battleships game from his bag – having purchased the set in duty free when Addison gently inquired if he had anything for Noah to do during the flight. He places it on the table in front of him and turns to the window. God, everything looks so small, he thinks as he asks Noah if he wants to play.

“After I beat you,” the young boy starts, “can I play Auntie Amy?”

 At Noah’s words, Mark half turns to see Amelia, on the fringes of sleep, give a little nod and say, “Of course little man. I’ll be much harder to beat than your Daddy though.” With her little warning in his mind Noah focuses his gaze on the tiny ships and a look of concentration comes over his face. Mark smiles at Amelia, who once again closes her eyes, and then picks up the submarine and places it on the grid.

Behind, Addison is staring out the window, watching the small towns flick by at a remarkable rate. Derek, beside her, is reading a medical journal and the red head sitting on the end is playing some tap sensitive game on her phone. Addison sighs tiredly and wonders if Derek will talk to her at all on the flight – but knowing him he’ll get sucked into whatever he’s reading and totally ignore the outside world until the plane lands in Seattle. Oh god, Seattle – the city where it always rains – Addison has already expressed her horror at this to all the adults travelling with them at least three times each; if Addison had her way, she and Derek would move to LA and spend all their time either working or sitting on the beach but they both have jobs in New York, lives, so why abandon it?

The woman on the end of the row is speaking but Addison has been to wrapped up in her hatred of the rain that she doesn’t take it in all it – Derek sits obliviously in the middle and by the time Addison turns the redhead has already spoken twice. “Excuse me, please could you pass that magazine?” It takes Addison a moment to realise that the other woman is pointing at the stack of magazines stuffed in to the back of the chair in front of her but when she does she acts quickly, pulling the first one she can get her hands on out and then handing it past a silently chuckling Derek, to the redhead.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying any attention” Addison says as the woman takes the magazine off of her.        

April Kepner opens the magazine and tries to avoid blushing at the embarrassment. God, she hadn’t even wanted to go to the conference – not really – but Jackson had persuaded her _. ‘Some of the world’s best surgeons will be there April, you have to come,’_ he had said, and it was true – this trip did give her the opportunity to meet some top class surgeons, to try and improve as a doctor.

The man sitting next to her shifts a little as she hears someone say “See daddy I said I would beat you.” April turns to look at the pair beside her and notices the man’s eyes are very blue and remembers something that Reed said to her the last time they saw each other – _‘You, April Kepner, like people based on their eyes._ ’ She laughs quietly at the memory, now six months old, and turns back to her magazine but her thoughts are still on the man’s eyes and Reed’s words. She hasn’t seen Reed, or Charles for that matter, since there wedding back in June - that had also been the last time she’d seen Jackson, but she had phoned and texted him since - Reed too.

Sometimes she wonders what it would’ve been like if she’d worked with them in Seattle, what it would’ve been like if she hadn’t been fired and forced to move to New York to get another job, different definitely but how different she’s not sure. She shrugs to herself, and turns her attention to an article on natural disaster’s as the pilot announces that they’re three hours from landing.

…

Lexie Grey places her spoon on the plate and looks up at her boyfriend. Jackson is staring down at his empty coffee cup, and doesn’t react instantly when she starts talking. “That was nice.” When he finally looks up a second later he has a serious look on her face and for a heartbeat Lexie worries that something bad has happened – to Meredith or Emily or her dad maybe, he has been distracted for the whole meal. Lexie’s paranoia is worsened when Jackson starts to speak.

“Lex,” he says, in Lexie’s worried opinion, the way you would tell a family member that someone is dead. “We’ve been together, what, three years?” Lexie’s mind is still on all the horrible scenario’s that he might’ve been about to inform her about and she doesn’t reply for a moment.

“Eh, what – yeah, we’ve been together three years,” _What does it matter_ , she nearly adds, and _why so serious?_  

“You know I love you yeah?” _Oh_ , she thinks, _this sounds like a confession._ “So,” he says, getting out of his seat – giving Lexie the feeling he’s going to walk out on her – and stands there. Then Lexie realises what’s going to happen and it scares her. Jackson Avery gets down and one knee and asks her to marry him. “Lex?” he says after she doesn’t immediately reply.

“Jackson,” she starts. “I… I…I”

….

“So he’s staying with his mother?” Cristina Yang asks, looking across at Meredith, her knees drawn up to her chest. “Ah, that’s cute,”

“It’s not cute,” Meredith says, “It’s actually quite sad,” Her words cause Cristina to laugh, so Meredith turns her attention the other occupant of the room. Alex sits opposite them, a beer held in his hand.

“He’s going to move out, yeah, and live somewhere else?” he asks in response to the conversation. Meredith nods and Alex continues, “Then it’s not sad, nah – if he planned on living with his mom for the rest of his live then that would be sad.” He looks like he’s going to say something else but Cristina interjects.

“See Mere, he agrees – it’s cute.”

“No,” Alex as the doorbell rings, “That is not what I said.” Meredith moves from next to Cristina as she moves towards the door. Upon opening it she sees her daughter and Owen standing on the porch.

“Hey,” Owen starts. “You said to come back later,” He hands Emily over as Meredith goes to one side to let him in.

“Yeah, I know. Alex is here so he’ll probably help,” she says, gesturing with one hand in the vague direction of the living room. “Hey little girl,” she says to Emily as Owen disappears into the lounge. Meredith follows a few moments later.

When she re-enters the room Alex is already on his feet and both men quickly disappear upstairs to start moving the boxes. Meredith puts Emily on the floor near a pile of play bricks and sits down next to her.

“How is my tiny little god daughter?” Cristina asks as they hear the boys come down the stairs.

“Mere,” They hear Alex call. “could you get the door?” Meredith stands up and moves towards the hall. She opens the door and searches the area for anything to prop it open with. Owen and Alex put the boxes in the car as Meredith notices it has started to rain.   

“Mere,” she hears Cristina call from the other room. “You’ve got a text from Lexie. Apparently Jackson’s proposed,” As Alex comes back in Meredith smiles, happy for a sister.

“I so called that,” he says as he starts to climb the stairs again.

“What?” Owen asks, coming to stand next to Meredith.

“Lexie and Jackson getting engaged,” Alex replies, appearing at the top of the stairs. Before Owen can say anything to this, however, Cristina speaks again.

“Oh, they’re not engaged, Alex – Lexie walked out on him.”

….

Arizona looks round Joe’s, her eyes falling on the two doctors sitting at the bar. She makes her way over to them and takes a seat next to Richard Webber.

“Hello, Dr Robbins,” he says and then orders her a drink – she tries to reject it but a voice pipes up from beside the former chief of surgery.

“I’ve tried to stop him buying me drinks for the best part of half an hour – it doesn’t work.” Callie Torres points at the glass of tequila in front of her and laughs. Arizona laughs too and then takes a sip of the drink Joe has just placed in front of her.

“Thanks, Richard,” she says as she puts in back down on the bar.

“Heard you were doing a seminar tomorrow,” Callie states. “Burke’s asked all the heads to do one – me, you, Bailey. You’re doing one, aren’t you ,Webber?” At the orthopaedic doctor’s words, Richard looks up from his whiskey but takes another sip before speaking.

“Yes, it’s the pitfalls of using opioids in the treatment of gall stones,” Arizona can see that Callie is trying not to laugh and she starts to chuckle too – _must be the tequila_ , she thinks.       

Behind them, a group of residents enter the bar – Arizona recognises all of them but can only think of a few of their names; Wilson, Edwards and Leah – and that’s it. Arizona tries to behind Richard but Leah spots her and smiles. Arizona takes a long gulp of the tequila and wonders why she ever thought sleeping with her resident would be a good idea.

Richard, in between taking sips of his drink, starts to ask Callie how she’s holding up.

“Well,” Callie starts, before drinking all of the tequila in her glass and ordering another. “Today is the anniversary of George’s death so I’m not doing so good,”

“How’s George Jr?” Richard asks before looking round and seeing if he’s in the bar.

“Louise is looking after him,” she says. “That’s George’s mom,” Callie adds for Arizona’s benefit, even though Arizona knows full well who ‘ _Louise’_ is – she thinks everyone in the hospital must know about Callie and Louise O’Malley. This is on account of Callie’s son, her little boy, who had born six months after his father was hit by a bus and died –something like doesn’t get forgotten quickly. No it had lived on in gossip, rumours. Like the rumour that George sr had cheated on Callie with Alex Karev’s cancer stricken wife and she had still got back with him – love, that’s what they call it isn’t it?  Arizona knew for a fact that Alex and Izzie hadn’t even been together when the incident had occurred so she doubted the validity of that particular rumour, but still – she knew there was some truth behind it.

 Arizona drinks up her tequila and slips of the stool, wishing the others a good night and disappears from the bar into the cool night.

….

The plane lands in Seattle at the same time Lexie Grey reaches her sister’s house, tears tracking down her face. She tells her sister, over and over, that life isn’t fair.

“Oh,” Meredith said, “who ever told you it was?”  

….

****


End file.
